Canadian police are searching gardens and backyards in Toronto for possible victims of a suspected serial killer.

Bruce McArthur was charged earlier this month with the murders of Selim Esen, 44, and Andrew Kinsman, 49, who were both reported missing from Toronto's gay village area at different times last year.

Police in the Canadian city have said he has now also been charged with a further three first-degree murders - those of Majeed Kayhan, 58, and Soroush Marmudi, 50; and Dean Lisowick, 47, of no fixed address.

The latest three bodies were found dismembered at the bottom of large planters in gardens that McArthur, a 66-year-old landscape gardener, had worked on.

Further remains were found but police are waiting on DNA tests to see if they are from the five men or from yet more victims.

Police are searching almost 30 properties where McArthur worked, according to Toronto Detective Sergeant Hank Idsinga.

He urged any of McArthur's customers to contact police, saying that officers have access to McArthur's client list and were working through it.

He said: "We believe there are more remains at some of these properties that we are working to recover.

"We have seized quite a few planters from around the city and we will continue to do that.

"There are at least two sites that we do want to excavate where people might be buried."

Detective Sgt Idsinga said that, although the victims relating to the first two charges went missing from the city's gay area and McArthur had a sexual relationship with Kinsman, the killing "encompasses more than the gay community - it encompasses the city of Toronto".

"The city of Toronto has never seen anything like this.

"It is unprecedented and draining.

"He's an alleged serial killer and he's taken some steps to cover his tracks and we have to uncover these victims and identify these victims and hopefully get some closing news to the families of those victims."